Chapter 8: The Audition

I must have looked absolutely petrified or something because Lea walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "You'll do fine," she said, obviously sensing my distress. "Just relax. I'm pretty sure Nora loves you already."

Somehow I doubted that, but I still smiled thankfully in return.

My auditioning room was basically empty, except for a few plants, a huge, shiny black camera in the corner, and a lengthy, white table at the front of the room. There were papers all over the table in what looked to be an organized mess. There was already a man sitting at the table and another man walking around. Nora and the two women that were with her took their seats at the table. I walked over and handed them the folder containing my resume and headshots, while Lea and Christian stood beside the table.

Nora and one of the other women went over and talked to Lea for a minute before the audition started. I desperately wanted to know what they were talking about, but I couldn't exactly go over there and ask. Whatever it was about, the conversation was short and pretty soon, Nora took her seat at the head of the table.

The audition started off normally. Rachel Collins, the casting director, told me the audition would be taped and asked me to slate myself. That simply involved stating my name and what part I was auditioning for. "My name is Sophia Hastings, and I'm auditioning for the part of Natalie."

The part of Natalie was a small one. She didn't even get a surname. Her purpose was pretty much just to show the womanizing ways of the male lead, William Knight. I hadn't read the book yet, but I read a summary and Tori had basically told me everything I needed to know. Even though Natalie wasn't my dream character, I would still put everything I had into this audition.

"Christian will read the lines of William Knight," Nora said, looking down at a paper she had in her hand.

My hand twitched involuntarily but I didn't say anything. I'd already done enough by fighting with Christian before my audition. I wasn't about to jeopardize this opportunity any further.

Christian, on the other hand, had no trouble protesting, and for once, I was glad for it. "There must be someone else who could read the lines."

"Christian, this is why I called you in here," Nora said. "You were already here, and I thought it would be perfect."

"I'm not even auditioning for this movie," he said. "Like you said, I'm just here for Blake."

By Blake, I was assuming he meant Blake Grey. Those two were pretty much always together, at least when Christian wasn't with his flavor of the week. Obviously, I knew too much about Christian's life, mostly thanks to Tori but partly thanks to my own masochistic curiosity.

"You don't have to audition, Christian," Rachel Collins said. "Just read a few lines, okay?" She handed him a copy of the audition scene.

He easily gave in and sighed. "Okay."

"Alright, let's start."

Christian and I got into position, standing in front of each other, still keeping some distance between us.

"I have to go, babe," he began.

"What? Can't you stay a little longer?" I stuck my lower lip out in a pout, taking on that whiny, annoying voice I'd unintentionally adopted earlier when I was freaking out. It came in handy sometimes despite my hatred of it.

"No. I'm sorry, baby. I really wish I could. I'll call you sometime, okay?"

Even though he was just reading, he didn't do it with the monotone Tori often used when she was helping me practice. I still wasn't sure if she was just bored when she did it or if she really was that bad an actress.

"Sometime?" I asked in disbelief. And here I went. "Willy Bear, I am tired of hearing 'sometime' and 'maybe!' I want something real. I want to hear some sort of commitment from you!"

He didn't reply.

"Are you even listening to me?" I asked, making my voice even whinier somehow. I wasn't sure it was physically possible to get more annoying, but I managed.

"Listen, Natasha –"

"Natasha?" I cried. "My name is Natalie!"

"Shi – sorry. Sorry, Natalie. Listen. I don't think we should hang out anymore."

"Is that what you think this is?" I let out a loud, angry breath. "'Hanging out?'"

"I thought I was clear with you from the start... Natalie, I just... I need space. Yeah, space. Sorry. Besides, you deserve a real relationship."

"No. I will wait for you, Willy-Bear," I said. It was so hard to take this character seriously. She called him Willy-Bear, for Pete's sake. Willy-Bear. "We could have a real relationship one day! I'll wait as long as I need to."

"I don't think you want to wait that long. Besides, you'll probably be ugly and wrinkled by then, and I wouldn't want you, anyway," he said.

I scowled at him. If this wasn't just a read-through, this would have been the part where Natalie jumps up and heads towards her closet for her softball bat.

His eyes widened and he said, "Uh, this has been fun, but it's over and I'm leaving. Bye."

With that, my potential character's scene was already over.

Rachel smiled at us. "That was really good, guys. Sophia, I felt like you were actually a clingy, psychopathic wannabe girlfriend."

I smiled at the compliment. I guess I did make a pretty good clingy, psychopathic wannabe girlfriend.

"Although..." Nora interjected slowly. "Sophia, could you do another scene?"

"I wasn't aware Natalie was in another scene. Do you want me to do a monologue?"

"No, she's not. A monologue won't be necessary, either. I want you to read Emma van der Bilt's lines. Christian, would you keep reading Will's lines?"

My eyes were the ones that widened this time. She wanted me to read Emma van der Bilt's lines? Emma was the female lead. I was just here to audition for the part of Natalie. The mere thought made butterflies erupt in my stomach, but I tried not to let my nervousness show and just went along with it despite the fact that I had no idea what was happening.

I walked over and Rachel handed me a new sheet of paper. I surveyed the scene as Rachel looked at the folder with my resume and headshots, silently reviewing it.

"Just do the same thing you did for the first video," Rachel said. "Except this time... let's try adding some of the blocking. You don't have to do everything motion for motion, just the basics. Improvise if you want. This is totally casual. We're just seeing what happens. Let's start."

Christian walked towards me, stopping when he was a few feet away. "Is it true?" he began. "Or was Taylor lying?"

I looked away and said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He took a step closer. The second he did, my nose was assaulted by a questionable substance. It smelled like cologne, but it was too strong. Was I imagining things? It was starting to burn. "Yes, you do. Don't lie to me, Emma."

"But I don't. I —"

He closed the distance between us, pressing up against me. "I know you. You can't fool me."

I tried to internalize my discomfort, but in the end, I couldn't. The scent of his cologne finally almost blinded me and I had to take a few steps back. "Okay, this is not going to work," I said, coughing until my throat hurt.

"What now?"

"The smell of Axe is okay," I said, fanning the air around my nose. "Spraying the whole can onto yourself isn't."

Everyone except for Christian seemed to be amused by my comment, however admittedly unprofessional it may have been. It was that damn mouth of mine.

Instead of denying my accusation, he said, "I don't use Axe. I use a personalized cologne."

"One spray, Christian. Not ten."

He shot me a dirty look and was about to say something when Rachel interrupted us. "I think I have a scene in mind that you two might be able to pull off," she said, sharing a look with Nora. "Actually, there are several scenes that I think you guys could pull off, but we'll try this one for today."

For today? That made it sound like there'd be a collective tomorrow, which was good enough for me.

Rachel handed me a new sheet and I studied it for a moment. It didn't take me long to deduce that this was one we could definitely do.

Christian was also handed a new sheet. When Nora asked the cameraman if he was ready to go, we discovered he hadn't bothered cutting the tape. The last scene had been ruined thanks to me and the camera had caught every second of it. Great.

Christian and I got back into position and were ready to go again.

"What the hell—" I said, slipping back into character, except this was a little easier for me to pull off.

"Good morning, sunshine," he said. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

I looked over at him in alarm. My surprise quickly faded into amusement. "I'd say good morning, but judging by the boner on your face, I'd say you weren't having such a good morning."

Yeah, I liked this character much better. Emma was spunky – enough so that she hit Christian's character in the face with a pair of handcuffs and left his eye swollen and bruised.

Natalie, on the other hand, was just downright depressing. That role had also felt a lot more forced. With Emma, I didn't have to put in as much effort to stay in character. I felt like I was really her and the obnoxious guy standing in front of me was actually Will.

"Actually, I'm having a pretty good morning," he said. "My luck's about to change. You wanna know why?"

I didn't say anything.

"You know what? I'll tell you why. I've just successfully kidnapped the daughter of one of the richest men in the country. So face boner or not, I'd say I'm having a pretty damn good day."

"Don't start counting your lucky stars just yet," I said. "This isn't over yet."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Isn't it, though? I'm not the one who's naked and tied up in a stranger's back seat."

Luckily for my character, by naked, he meant bra and underwear, not butt naked. I looked down at myself once again in alarm but didn't let it show for too long. "Twelve hours ago, you were the one who was naked, beaten, and lying on the side of the road. I can assure you, if your tiny brain managed to figure out how to turn this around in your favor, I can do the same, and it will go ten times smoother."

"You're a bit overconfident, don't you think?" he asked.

I smirked. "Worried?"

"No. I can handle you."

"If you could handle me, you wouldn't have gone to these extremes. Is there any part of me you didn't tie up or duct tape?"

"Yeah, your mouth," he said. "Clearly that was a mistake."

Rachel and Nora had us skip over a few lines that were spoken by the other two main characters until it was time for the lines between us again.

"Welcome home," he said with a smug smile.

I looked at my surroundings with a disgusted look on my face before screaming at the top of my lungs. He flinched at the sound and put a hand over my mouth to make me stop.

So I did exactly what the script told me to do. I bit him. Hard.

He let out a stream of cuss words and screamed. "What the fuck, Sophia? Stop! Ow!"

Eventually, I let his hand fall out of mouth and laughed as he stood there and frantically waved his hand around, rubbing it on his shirt to clean it off.

He gave me a dirty look. "You weren't supposed to actually bite me."

I smiled innocently. "Whoops. Must have slipped my mind."

"What kind of an actress are you? For Christ's sake." He held his hand against his chest, still rubbing it.

"The kind that gets deep into character, of course," I said.

He just scowled at me and shook out his hand. Meanwhile, Nora and Rachel were still sitting at the table talking. They seemed amused, although I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. I knew I'd acted childishly. It was just that when it came to Christian, I seemingly had no control over my smart mouth. Even when I thought I was exerting self-control, it seemed as if I had none.

Considering Nora and Rachel had made me try out for two parts, I was especially lost. I had no idea where I stood. At that point, I would have been grateful to be cast as an extra.

Hell, I would have taken the role of a tree again.